The Rings of Power’s first episodes only skim the surface of Lord of the Rings
Amazon’s The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Powerarrives on Prime Video this week burdened by outrageously high audience expectations. Not only does the streaming series have to live up to J.R.R. Tolkien’s beloved fantasy novels, but it also invites unavoidable comparisons to Peter Jackson’s The Lord of the Ringstrilogy — collectively one of the most critically and commercially successful big-screen adaptations ever.
This can’t have made life easy for showrunners J.D. Payne and Patrick McKay. After all, how do you craft a Lord of the Ringsshow that paradoxically stays true to Tolkien (and, to a lesser extent, Jackson) while still breaking new ground? It’s a question The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power’s first two episodes aren’t really equipped to answer, since they ultimately come up short on both fronts.
That’s not to say that The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power doesn’t evoke Tolkien. Certainly, there are plenty of Tolkienesque plot beats littered throughout these first two episodes. Sinister, soul-corrupting McGuffins? Check. Forbidden interspecies love? Check. Hobbits swept up in world-changing events, the full significance of which fly well over their 3-foot-6-inch-high heads? Check. We’ve seen it all before, and frankly, seen it done better, too — especially the scenes involving the Harfoots — so why aren’t we diving into some other, unexplored corner of Middle-earth lore instead?
The same goes for Payne, McKay, and pilot director J.A. Bayona’s impressively cinematic vision of Middle-earth, which is clearly informed by the production design in Jackson’s films, itself inspired largely by legendary Tolkien artists John Howe and Alan Lee. Ditto the CGI, the fight choreography, bravura camera work, and
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